Elliott, David. The Life of the Rev. Elisha Macurdy: with an Appendix containing brief Notices of various Deceased Ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Western Pennsylvania. Allegheny & Philadelphia: Kennedy & Brother | William S. Martien, 1848. First Edition. [9661]
Recently rebound in brick red buckram, gilt title & call numbers on spine, new end papers, card pocket at back, oval blindstamp on tp, several ink name stamps within. 7 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches, lithograph portrait, 323 pp., tight. Very good. Hardcover.
Roberts, Revival Literature: An Annotated Bibliography, no. 1911. "An outstanding biography. Chapters three and four deal with revivals in Western Pennsylvania, especially the revival of 1802. It is a stirring account indeed."
Elisha Macurdy (1763-1845); b. Carlisle, Pennsylvania; d. Allegheny, Pennsylvania (an area now part of Pittsburgh). Macurdy was educated at the Academy of Cannonsburg (which later merged with Jefferson College), and licensed by the Presbytery of Ohio about 1799. His first work was as a missionary in the regions bordering Lake Erie. In 1800 he was ordained minister of the congregations of Cross Roads and Three Springs. "During this connection he had an important agency in the revival in Western Pennsylvania, and was one of those who formed the 'Western Missionary Society.' - M'Clintock & Strong.
Macurdy continued to engage in missionary work to the frontiersmen and Indians of the Lake Erie border regions, with the approval of the congregations of which he was pastor. By 1835 this exhausting work diminished his physical capabilities, and he resigned from pastoral work. He continued, when possible, to supply pulpits and to visit the inmates of the Western Penitentiary in Allegheny.
"Mr. Macurdy, as a preacher, was distinguished for directness, earnestness, boldness, in both matter and manner. He never daubed with untempered mortar. He never softened down God's truth for the sake of conciliating those who pronounced it a hard saying...There was certainly little refinement in his manner or style of preaching; but their was a rich vein of evangelical thought, and an air of deep sincerity, that were far more impressive and effective than any mere rhetorical exhibitions could have been...He was undoubtedly among the most laborious and useful ministers in Western Pennsylvania." - William Neil, in Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 236.